Please use this forum to share ideas, materials, and methods for teaching about Asia that are appropriate for high school classes. Please also note the social studies, literature, and other discipline-specific threads in the "Asia in My Classroom" forum.

It is long (but not too long) and detailed, and talks a little bit about the history of tea and about different styles of tea. It seems like great cultural enrichment for a chinese language class or for a unit on china.

We heard about this from the LA County Office of Education -- it sounds like something many might utilize. If you do complete the 1 hour training and then get the package, please do post a review of it.

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I have also found that students love haiku. Several years ago I started using "HAIKU REVIEW". Since it is nearly impossible to get most high school students to study college-style for an exam, I started giving them the opportunity to translate their old assignments into haiku. This is especially helpful just before midterm or final exams, which in my classes are all essay. They simply look over their old assignments, notes, quizes, tests, etc. and make haiku. They love the challenge and creativity part. They are also able to expand on the art side by making them look like art. One HAIKU REVIEW for WW2 was written on the silhouette of a Panzer tank, or a haiku for the Cold War on a relica of Sputnik hanging on a string (yep, you guessed it, an empty toilet paper roll :-D ), and one of my favorites was a haiku about the French Revolution on a rough (very rough) replica of the Bastille made out of graham crackers. I would enjoy hearing from others if they would like to try this.[Edit by="agalloway on Nov 11, 12:25:19 PM"][/Edit][Edit by="agalloway on Nov 11, 12:29:00 PM"][/Edit]

I've taught Hwang Sunwan’s short story “Cranes" in the past and I'm now thinking of teaching it and following it with the movie, or at least a clip from the movie, that we saw at Saturday's seminar with two brothers on either side of the demilitarized zone in Korea--unfortunately, I don't remember the name and couldn't find it in the materials we were given that day.

Short stories are good for teaching narrative, plot devices, conflict, characterization, point of view and film could be used simply to compare the treatment of all of the above in a different genre. I don't have the language arts standards in front of me, but I know there is one about comparing genres and the effectiveness of different genres. The story and film could be further supplemented with a news report or article. In yesterday's class someone mentioned the Smithsonian archive of photos--that could be another way of bringing in different genres and comparing--the photos could perhaps function as a Into leading up to reading the story.

Something similar could be done with one of the Chinese stories/books Professor Dube mentioned that were adapted to film-one that caught my attention was Rickshaw Boy.

The South Korean film mentioned above is JSA -- Joint Security Area. It's a bit melodramatic, but it pounds home the notion that what unites us far surpasses what divides us. It is available from Amazon:

You can probably buy it for less in Koreatown or elsewhere, but be sure you get the English subtitled version (some only have Chinese subtitles). As you saw, there are clips available on YouTube.

I've probably posted a lot more on this in threads on Korea, but for now, you might find this discussion of the JSA (meaning that UN/North Korean jurisdictions overlap) interesting. I visited in 2003 and found it fascinating. That was the 50th anniversary of the end of the Korean War (or at least the end of major fighting, no peace treaty has ever been signed) and National Geographic had good coverage (July issue?). The USO (yes, the USO) organized our tour to the DMZ and JSA.

I am a special day class teacher, but my studets really respond to really digging into other cultures. I expand the curriculum by teaching them about art, writing, foods, clothig, etc. It really helps peak their interests.

I am teaching about the Vietnam War in my history class, and I found the students VERY RECEPTIVE to the documentary, "Dear America:Letters Home From Vietnam". It shows actual footage of the Vietnam War and as that footage is shown, actual letters written by the soldiers and loved ones are read/narrated by actors. Students were held accountable for watching the video with a writing assignment and a class discussion follows/accompanies the viewing of the video

Subject: Foreign Language ' Japanese'Standard 2.2:Students demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between the products and perspectives of the culture studied.

In order to explore Chinese and Korean culture in my Japanese program, I would compare the similarities and differences off these 3 countries. For example, when discussing chopstick culture, our class analyzes why Spoon usage was incorporated in both China and Korea, but not in Japan. This allows us as a class to uncover links between history, culture and necessity that contributed to present day food culture within East Asian countries.

Currently China, Korea and Japan seem to be loosing their traditional values (Confucianism, etc) in favor of Western influences: Instead of eating sushi, preference is given to eating KFC and Mcdonalds. Due to the dominance of social networking, the youth of East Asian countries and US are assimilated more closer than ever; the idea of Confucianism will soon be a concept of the past.

The age group of the students watching this documentary in my class was 16-17 year olds in the 11th grade. The class writing assignment and discussions that accompanied the showing of the film revealed the students to be in awe of the realities of war. Upon viewing the scenes of the acutal killing, carnage, violence...the students were awestruck. The class was especially shocked by the famous photo of the Viet Cong who got shot in the the head execultion style during the Tet Offensive. Nevertheless, the students expressed how they felt the human element of war as they would hear the actual letters being read. The 60's/70's music also got the students engaged in the video.

Teaching a Journalism class with many Hispanic/Asian students has led to a constant search for culturally relevant stories for and about the community. I find it important to tie in stories from the mother country to this new world culture to make their experience and understanding more relevant.

we discuss marriage customs during Elizabethan times. Perhaps I can create a lesson in which students research Japanese marriage customs as well and groups can present various scenarios in response to questions posed in a love and marriage encounter from the two cultures